Bethesda teases Skyrim’s Creation Kit in preview video

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Skyrim developer Bethesda has completed the Creation Kit, a suite of mod tools to create addons for the open-world RPG that includes tight integration with Steam for players and creators alike.

The Creation Kit will look familiar to those who’ve written extensions for previous Bethesda games such as Fallout 3. The file formats and workflows are all basically the same, according to level designer Joel Burgess in the video above.

Documentation is set to be a big part of the release as well. A development wiki is being published with articles written by the game’s development team.

Burgess also touted a few specific tools to aid specialists on larger modmaking teams. Writers get a dialogue editing tool and a scene editor for complex NPC interactions. Artists and level designers get the gift of dynamic lighting in the editor, which makes the edited scene look much more like what players will experience in-game. There’s also a new scripting language unique to Skyrim that will certainly allow for more power.

The biggest change visible to players is the Skyrim Workshop, a connection between the Steam digital distribution platform and the development tools. From the editor, creators can quickly upload their work to Steam. Once they fill in a short form, the mod will be uploaded to the service and will be publicly visible from within the Steam software.

Players can then click one button to ‘subscribe’ to a mod, which will be automatically downloaded and installed. Skyrim will also automatically update mods upon launch. From the Steam interface players will be able to activate and deactivate mods as they like. Steam will also support ratings for mods.

There’s a parallel here between the ease of downloading Skyrim mods and the “Mann-conomy” in Team Fortress 2. In Valve’s game, modmakers have proposed items that have made their way to the in-game store, and proceeds from purchases have gone to their creators. That’s been possible since 2010, and while there haven’t been many numbers recently, it took a very short time for Valve to write $200,000 in checks – and that’s just a slice of the profits! – to developers.

I suspect that Valve sees a mod economy on the horizon where many triple-A PC games become App Stores in and of themselves, and the modders are the app creators. So far, Valve is the only publisher that looks like it’s ready to take part in it.